By KATE YANDELL;

Published: August 21, 2012

heart attack, according to a study published online last week in Archives of Internal Medicine.Swiss researchers used high-sensitivity measurements of cardiac troponins, proteins that leak out of damaged heart tissue, to determine the likelihood that patients were having heart attacks. The tests commonly used today can detect cardiac troponins only at relatively high levels, when a heart attack is well under way. It can take four to six hours to rule out a heart attack.">

A new test can discern in under an hour whether a patient is having a heart attack, according to a study published online last week in Archives of Internal Medicine.Swiss researchers used high-sensitivity measurements of cardiac troponins, proteins that leak out of damaged heart tissue, to determine the likelihood that patients were having heart attacks. The tests commonly used today can detect cardiac troponins only at relatively high levels, when a heart attack is well under way. It can take four to six hours to rule out a heart attack.

The scientists also took into account how levels of cardiac troponins changed over an hour. This helped differentiate between patients who were having heart attacks and patients with chronically elevated levels of these proteins caused by heart disease or other ailments.

Christian Mueller, an author of the study and a professor of cardiology at University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland, said that the assessment could save significant time and space in emergency rooms. "It's quite exciting to have a high proportion of patients ruled out very early," he said.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

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heart attack, according to a study published online last week in Archives of Internal Medicine.Swiss researchers used high-sensitivity measurements of cardiac troponins, proteins that leak out of damaged heart tissue, to determine the likelihood that patients were having heart attacks. The tests commonly used today can detect cardiac troponins only at relatively high levels, when a heart attack is well under way. It can take four to six hours to rule out a heart attack.">